"How to create Icon files for your windows app using Visual Studio and MS Paint."

How to create Icon files for your windows app using Visual Studio and MS Paint. - The Code Project - .NET

"For the longest time I was limited to only having the icons I could create artistically or existing icons I could reuse in my windows apps. I don’t know about you, but I am not artistic enough to make good icons from scratch. This article describes how to use Visual Studio and MS Paint to create icons for your windows app starting with an existing bitmap....

Background
I was creating a new windows app and I was faced again with having the default icon on the app. I had a little time on my hands and decided to try to make a new icon file from an existing bitmap file. I figured there may be a few other programmers out there that would like to know what I learned. ..."

I'm pretty a lamer when it comes to graphics... Reuse is my watchword. I do "okay" when it comes to compositing images, but starting from scratch is pretty much beyond me.

Also I've found "flash" is king. If your app doesn't look cool, it's not cool. Doesn't matter how uber-bitch'n it REALLY is, the user's first impression will be how it looks. Getting beyond that first impression takes time. Time that senior management or causal users don't usually put into using the app...

So I've started working toward having all my apps look at least semi-cool, to the best of my ability. No more FUBLY (FUnction But ugLY) UI's. But given my graphic ability sucks, well I need all the help I can get.

The above post is the kind of help I need. Simple ways to help me work around my personal challenges and toward Official App Coolness...

"Visual Studio .NET 2005 Automation Samples"

Download details: Visual Studio .NET 2005 Automation Samples

"Microsoft has invested heavily in Visual Studio .NET extensibility. This is an important part of Visual Studio .NET because it lets customers easily tailor the tool to their personal working style and enables them to accommodate team practices. You can simply capture several steps in a regular process (for example, for check-ins, creating new projects or forms, or updating code) and make that process available as a single command to invoke. Independent software vendors (ISVs) can implement entirely new features (including groupware, profiling tools, work flow, or life-cycle tools) that fit into Visual Studio .NET 2005 as seamlessly as if they were built into the shipping Visual Studio .NET product.

These code samples show you how to build VSMacros projects, add–ins, and wizards to make your teams more productive and customize Visual Studio .NET 2005 to the ways you like to work. Look for more samples, as well as some white papers and overview documents, in the future.
..."

This download includes a ton of very cool sounding samples... From a spell check macro to generating HTML from code to an Add-in Wizard.

Synergy - Mouse/Keyboard Sharing Utility for Across Different OS's

Synergy

"Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

Synergy is open source and released under the GNU Public License (GPL). 

..."

Now doesn't that just sound cool?

What's also very cool is that it runs on Windows, Mac OS X 10.2+ and Linux/X Windows. So you can move your mouse off your Windows screen and onto your Linux box...

(via philweber.net - Cool Utility )

Official WMF MS Patch Available Now.

Dana Epp's ramblings at the Sanctuary: WMF Issue to be fixed today with release of GDI patch early

"It seems Microsoft is ready to release to patch early. Instead of next Tuesday, the patch will be available for download TODAY sometime after 2 pm.

The security bulletin (MS06-001) is already published and available here. ..."

VERY cool... I just checked Microsoft Update and the patch is already available (1:26 PM PST).

Installing it now (and now rebooting...).

1099's for your MMO Trades?

Terra Nova: The Taxman Cometh?

"It's official: The IRS has its eyes on your virtual gold.

Well, sort of official, anyway. And maybe more like just the corner of one eye. But as Yours Truly reports in the latest issue of Legal Affairs magazine, IRS advisers specializing in the arcane field of barter income recently offered the opinion that any trade of one virtual item for another--gold pieces for thick leather, uber drops for plat--could very well constitute a taxable, income-generating exchange according to the IRS's rules on barter.

I repeat: Not dollars for dragon scales. Not sterling for staves. Every blessed, innocent, RP-consistent trade of one virtual good for another, so long as each good has a determinable fair-market value (and name one that doesn't these days).

..."

This just made me sigh and shake my head...

Okay after reading the entire article, it's not as bad as it sounds... But it wouldn't surprise me, that's the sad thing.

If you're interested, make sure you read the above referenced article, Dragon Slayers or Tax Evaders? It's a pretty interesting and funny read...

LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ NXT

LEGO.com About us - LEGO Company - PressRoom

"LAS VEGAS – LEGO Group today announces LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ NXT, a new system that redefines the consumer robotics category the company created in 1998. Smarter, stronger and more intuitive than ever, LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is a robotics toolset that provides endless opportunities for armchair inventors, robotics fanatics and LEGO builders ages 10 and older to build and program robots that do what they want. LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, available in August 2006...

...

The heart of the new system is the NXT brick, an autonomous 32-bit LEGO microprocessor that can be programmed using a PC, or for the first time in the retail offering, a Mac. After building their robots, users create a program within easy-to-use yet feature-rich software, powered by LabVIEW from National Instruments.

Downloading programs to an invention is easy. Users with Bluetooth®-enabled computer hardware can transfer their programs to the NXT wirelessly, or anyone can use the included USB 2.0 cable to connect their computer to the NXT for program transfer. The robot then takes on a life of its own, fully autonomous from the computer. The inclusion of Bluetooth technology also extends possibilities for controlling robots remotely, for example, from a mobile phone or PDA.

...

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT highlights include:

• All-new NXT intelligent brick
• 3 interactive servo motors feature inbuilt rotation sensors to align speed for precise control
• New ultrasonic sensor makes robots “see” by responding to movement
• New sound sensor enables robots to react to sound commands, including sound pattern and tone recognition
• Improved light sensor detects different colors and light intensity
• Improved touch sensor reacts to touch or release and allows robots to feel
• 519 hand-selected, stylized elements from the LEGO TECHNIC® building system ensure robot creations will be sturdy and durable while also looking authentic
• Opportunities for physical programming of robots and interaction with robots during programming
• 18 building challenges with clear, step-by-step instructions help acclimate users to the new system to create robots ranging from humanoids and machinery to animals and vehicles
• Digital wire interface allows for third-party developments
..."

Oh yeah, I'm going to have to find a reason to get this... ;)

(via Gizmodo - Live From CES: Lego Mindstorms NXT )

If I'm watching the live webcast of Bill Gates' Keynote at CES...

... does that make me a geek?  ;)

Okay, silly question...

He's showing off some pretty cool stuff. I want the uber-touchscreen thing he's talking about right now...

Wait! I want the SUPER desktop monitor thing!

Okay, I want to watch this... I'm sure there will be about a billion blog posts about this stuff RSN.

Free eBook "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony"

Asterisk Documentation Project - Project Information

"We're pleased to announce the availability of Asterisk: The Future of Telephony online! The result of hundreds of hours of painstaking labor, this book represents the work of Jim Van Meggelen, Jared Smith, and Leif Madsen over the past year.

Thanks to O'Reilly Media for publishing the book and agreeing to publish it under the Creative Commons license. ..."

Very cool... Downloaded.

It's copyrighted August 30, 2005 and weighs in at 376 pages...

Here's the table of contents...

"Chapter 1, A Telephony Revolution
This is where we chop up the kindling, and light the fire. Asterisk is going to change the world of telecom, and this is where we discuss our reasons for that belief.

Chapter 2, Preparing a System for Asterisk
Covers some of the engineering considerations you should have in mind when designing a telecommunications system. Much of this material can be skipped if you want to get right to installing, but these are important concepts to understand, should you ever plan on putting an Asterisk system into production.

Chapter 3, Installing Asterisk
Covers the obtaining, compiling and installation of Asterisk.

Chapter 4, Initial Configuration of Asterisk
Describes the initial configuration of Asterisk. Here we will cover the important configuration files that must exist to define the channels and features available to your system.

Chapter 5, Dialplan Basics
Introduces the heart of Asterisk, the dialplan.

Chapter 6, More Dialplan Concepts
Goes over some more advanced dialplan concepts.

Chapter 7, Understanding Telephony
Taking a break from Asterisk, this chapter discusses some of the more important technologies in use in the Public Telephone Network.

Chapter 8, Protocols for VoIP
Following the discussion of legacy telephony, this chapter discusses Voice over IP.

Chapter 9, The Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI)
Introduces one of the more amazing components, the Asterisk Gateway Interface. Using Perl, PHP, and Python, we demonstrate how external programs can be used to add nearly limitless functionality to your PBX.

Chapter 10, Asterisk for the Über-Geek
Briefly covers what is, in fact, a rich and varied cornucopia of incredible features and functions; all part of the Asterisk phenomenon.

Chapter 11, Asterisk: The Future of Telephony
Predicts a future where open source telephony completely transforms an industry desperately in need of a revolution."

(via digg - O'Reilly Asterisk Book Available For Free Download)

Related Past Post XRef:
Build Your Own PBX with Asterisk@Home. Also Asterisk@Home 2.1 Has Been Released...
"Running Asterisk@Home Under Windows"
Slashdot | Asterisk Open Source PBX 1.0 Release

DotNetFireball - Code Editor Component (LGPL, C#)

Saw this project today, The Code Project: Fireball.CodeEditor, and thought it was pretty darn cool (just look past the translated(?) English).

DotNetFireball is a pretty complete .Net code editor component that even includes color syntax. Out of the box, it supports color syntax for 36 languages and since the syntax info is in XML, it should be easy to add more languages if needed.

The Code Project project includes a working example (FireEdit Binaries) which is an easy what to check this component out. It's pretty cool seeing it in action... And considering the source for the component is OSS (LGPL), its cool++

Check out the home of Dot Net Fireball at DotNetFireball | Main / OpenSource for more information.

One thing, if you download the tar's, you might want to use WinRAR. My WinZIP 9 install didn't like the tar's and couldn't open them...

ASP.NET Starter Kits and Design Templates

ASP.NET Developer Center: Design Templates

"Download these professionally designed Starter Kits and XHTML templates to get you started creating compelling, standards-compliant Web pages with ASP.NET 2.0. There are four Starter Kits below. These Starter Kits are complete web site solutions using ASP.NET’s latest controls (tree view control, grid view control, detail view control, login control, site map path controls and more). There are another 5 XHTML templates below. These are individual XHTML strict Web page templates (available each in two different colors) that are accompanied by design philosophy whitepapers that describe each template’s Section 508 conformance, page layout with CSS (page layouts using CSS floats or tables), Web page accessibility best practices and Web standard resources. All nine templates below are easily customizable and extendable to fit your own content.

...

Commerce Design
The "Commerce" template features three columns of content in a centered fixed/fluid layout. No layout tables, just CSS...

Personal Design
Best suited for a personal or blog-style web site, this template has a hybrid fixed/fluid layout that organizes the content in two columns, with a horizontal menu at the top....

Corporate Design
This template has been specifically designed to accommodate large amounts of content. It features a three-column, centered layout with a fixed width...

Business Design
This template features two columns that are arranged in a centered, fixed-width layout. It is best suited for a small to medium-sized site...

HTML Standards Based Templates These templates illustrate high quality design principles combined with standards driven code. Each template is XHTML 1.1 Strict, Section 508/WCAG conforming and works across many browsers..."

The Templates include Basic, Fun, Grid, Rounded and Simple templates.

These look like they might truly be usable starting points, as apposed to "cut, slash and then code" starting projects.

Each starting kit comes in C# and VB flavors... Also each Kit and Template comes with its own online documentation, which looks to be a nice resource for making the site resulting from the kit/template your own.

(via .net DElirium - Design Templates and Starter Kits for ASP.NET 2.0)

"Complete FAQ for the System.Net.Mail namespace found in .NET 2.0"

System.Net.Mail, OH MY!

Jason pointed out this very cool System.Net.Mail FAQ.

This is a very cool FAQ, one that should be one of your first stops if you are interested in System.Net.Mail. From an intro, code samples (VB & C#), troubleshooting, to links to additional information... It looks pretty darn complete.

I just wish there was a RSS feed so I could keep up to date on future changes/additions/etc.

(via Jason Alexander - System.Net.Mail FAQ Site!)

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) PerSession and Shareable Intro Article

Sharing State across Clients in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

"This article explains the two new modes of sharing states in services introduced in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), namely, PerSession and Shareable, and how you can write services and clients that can leverage them."

How state management is handled in WCF something I'm pretty interested in. I've not played with WCF much, but I am following its development and thinking about how I'll be able to use it once it's RTM.

This 8 page PDF provides a nice light weight intro to WCF's PerSession and Shareable state management features.

(via Inside and Out... - [Article] Sharing State across Clients in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF))

Okay, Now I'm starting to get mad...

Seems that sometime during the night by web/syndication feeds settings was reset to "short" feeds (i.e. just the furst 255 characters or so). Personally I do not like short/descriptive/header/"click here for more" feeds.

Checking my blog settings, nothing appeared to be changed. The Feed Descriptions was still set to Full... sigh...

I was able to fix it by setting the Feed Descriptions from Short, saving, setting it to Full, saving and then republishing my index.

If you got my last few posts as short feeds, my appoligies.

I don't know what's going on with Google/Blogger (since their news feed has been silent for a few weeks) but it's really starting to piss me off...

FragExt

mutexed.com - FragExt

"FragExt is a free application and shell extension set, designed to
help you manage file fragmentation on FAT, FAT32 and NTFS volumes.

The set includes

• A unique file defragmenter which allows you to defragment specific files
  rather than an entire volume.
  
• Windows Explorer column and info-tip extensions for displaying file
  fragments, extents, clusters, disk space usage and alternate data streams.
  
• A file property extension for displaying detailed information about a
  file's, folder's and NTFS data stream's fragmentation information.
  
• Integration extensions for simplifying the use of the FragExt defragmenter,
  allowing you to select and defragment files directly from within Windows
  Explorer.
  
• Simple reporting features allowing you to save the information FragExt
  gathers.
  
• A scriptable defragmentation engine, allowing you to create your own custom
  utilities.

..."

This sounds like a very cool and useful free utility...
Check out the site for more details, screenshots, etc. And guess what? It comes
with the source.  : )

While you're there, check out some of the other stuff on http://www.mutexed.com/. There are some
pretty cool photo's and other stuff...

(via SHELL EXTENSION CITY)

Paging through lots of data efficiently (and in an Ajax way) with ASP.NET 2.0

Paging through lots of data efficiently (and in an Ajax way) with ASP.NET 2.0

"David Hayden blogged about a cool new ROW_NUMBER() function that SQL 2005 provides that got me excited and inspired to write a little code last night.

You can download the sample app I built here.

Features of the Sample
This sample is a self-contained ASP.NET application that demonstrates a few things:

- How to implement a data-result search page built with ASP.NET 2.0 and Atlas that can present hundreds of thousands of row results using the ASP.NET 2.0 GridView control..

- How to optimize the number of rows returned by the SQL Server to the middle-tier web-server...

- How to easily implement Ajax UI support for paging/editing/deleting on top of hundreds of thousands of rows of data (so no full page refreshes – instead it only updates the portion of the page that changes)...

- How to easily implement Ajax UI support for adding “auto-suggest” behavior to controls like text-boxes...

- How to implement a business class façade/wrapper around a data access layer...

..."

Scott has posted a very cool and complete SQL2005/ASP.Net/Ajax Paging example.

I'm thinking about using something like this in a WinForm project. Think about having users that expect to be able to view a grid of tens of thousands of rows, but also expect said grid to fill in seconds...

ROW_NUMBER sounds like a good fit to help provide this functionality. That with a grid with virtual cabilities, the BackgroundWorker and some math and I should be gold ("Right...")

Update #1 1/3/2005 @ 8:44 AM (PST):
This is a "clean up" update. I'm starting to post with IMHO and am learning how to best use it with Blogger.

Lesson #1: Either turn off Blogger's CRLF = Newline/Break feature or turn on IMHO's Strip CRLF on Post feature (that's what I did)....